Ankara, 13–15 October 2026
Meetings with the Turkish defence industry
Between 13 and 15 October 2026, JTJ Strategic Industries co-founders Ioan Caraian and Ștefan Emil Ionescu were in Ankara for a programme of meetings with leading companies of the Turkish defence and industrial sector, organised by our partner ASISGUARD.
The programme
Over three days, we visited the facilities and met the teams of:
- ASISGUARD — our official partner in Türkiye, developer of the SONGAR armed drone system
- Katmerciler — armoured and tactical vehicles, including the HIZIR 4×4
- Ateşçi — machinery, tooling and turnkey production lines
- Lentatek (Zorlu Holding) — unmanned and autonomous systems
- RST — RF, microwave and electro-optical sensing systems
- Meteksan Defence (Bilkent Holding) — radar, electronic warfare, communications and underwater acoustics
- Şam Group — an integrated group active in construction, healthcare, renewable energy and facility management
- FNSS (Nurol Holding) — tracked and wheeled armoured combat vehicles
- Elektroland Defence — unmanned ground vehicles and robotic systems
What we discussed
The discussions focused on how we can work together in the long term: local integration, testing, training and maintenance capabilities, and the opportunities where our companies can complement each other. In every meeting we found openness to real partnership, not only to selling.
What stayed with us most was the level of engineering and the people behind it. Many of these companies were born in technoparks and grew into international suppliers, and their teams know their systems in depth.
A word of thanks
None of this would have been possible without our partner ASISGUARD and its General Manager, Mr. Barış Düzgün. Mr. Barış is a man of his word: for him, a promise given matters more than any signed paper, and he keeps it. This is how he has brought ASISGUARD to the level it has reached today, and it is what makes him a trusted partner for the projects ahead.
We also thank all our hosts for their hospitality and openness.
Next steps
Our next step is to turn these conversations into concrete projects. We will share further updates here when the time is right.
This article describes meetings and discussions. It does not announce contracts, orders or exclusive arrangements.
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